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Surface Laptop Go 3 specs: what’s the best configuration?

The Surface Laptop Go 3 is a great little machine, but which one of its configurations should you buy? The higher-end ones are better, but just how much?

The Surface Laptop Go 3 is a fast, but affordable new laptop from Microsoft’s latest line of Surface devices. Announced at Microsoft’s September 2023 Surface event, it offers a speedy modern processor, plenty of SSD storage space, and a range of color options for the chassis. You can get the complete Surface package for $799, but you can configure it with more of less components to make it best suited for your needs.

Those extras do affect the cost, though, begging the question: Which is the best Surface Laptop Go 3 configuration? We’ve delved through the spec and retail listings to find out.

The Surface Laptop Go 3 is available with different configurations depending on whether you’re buying the consumer or commercial versions, but there are different hardware options within each of those ranges.

The display is the same 12.4-inch, 1536 x 1024 resolution screen no matter what you decide, and all models get the same 15-hours of battery life. Weight is also identical across all models, although the commercial version does have a more robust repair and service program, with a greater selection of swappable components.

The base configuration Surface Go 3 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage space is priced at $799, making it not only the most affordable of the range, but arguably the most competitive. It’s no powerhouse, but there’s plenty of performance there for everyday computing, web browsing, and basic office tasks. You’ll find greater performance in similarly priced models, but few that can match its mix of hardware, price, and portability.

We’ll need to test it ourselves to tell you how it performs in the real world, but we can safely say that if you want to do something like gaming, you’d be better off with a dedicated gaming laptop.

If the price difference at your store doesn’t end up being dramatically different, the 16GB version is probably worth splurging for, as that will improve the system’s multitasking capabilities considerably. The 256GB SSD is removable, though, so while you can’t pick a higher-end model in the Consumer line of this laptop, you will be able to replace the SSD down the line if you wish.

If your budget is a little higher, you might want to consider the Surface Laptop Studio 2, instead.

The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.

The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.

Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.

"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.

I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.

However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.